Volunteering "How to build a stone wall?!?"

This September I had the opportunity of attending the Microsoft MACH Volunteering work in Graubünden. As a city kid, the landscape somehow reminded me of the TV series: Bauer sucht Frau…As a foreigner learning Swiss German, after about 30 minutes of introduction by our instructor, I only managed to understand that our task is to build a stone wall. “A Wall? How hard can it be?” I thought. As soon as I tried to pick up the first stone, I changed my mind completely. Suddenly I felt sympathy for all the workers who build the Pyramids, Chinese Wall or the like… Can you imagine how our arms and legs felt like when we woke up the next morning? This was the moment we realised that we are extremely privileged to have jobs which has nothing to do with stone-carrying activities. Seriously though: The meaning of volunteering is that it brings you together to work towards a same goal. The harder the work is, the better team you will become.

So I hope next time we will build a pyramid together.

I mean it.

Yan